Verizon’s rollup strategy combining Yahoo and AOL hasn’t panned out the way it expected.

The telco spent around $10 billion to acquire Yahoo and AOL, merging them under the Oath operating division. But the internet-media business isn’t performing as well as Verizon originally expected — and on Tuesday, Verizon said it expects to record a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of approximately $4.6 billion (pre-tax) in the fourth quarter of 2018.

That write-down represents the elimination of nearly the entire goodwill balance of $4.8 billion that Verizon was carrying on its balance sheet for the Oath acquisitions. In accounting, goodwill reflects the value of intangible assets of an acquired entity.

“Verizon’s Media business, branded Oath, has experienced increased competitive and market pressures throughout 2018 that have resulted in lower than expected revenues and earnings,” the company said in an SEC filing. “These pressures are expected to continue and have resulted in a loss of market positioning to our competitors in the digital advertising business.”

Oath also has “achieved lower-than-expected benefits from the integration of the Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc. businesses,” Verizon said.

K. Guru Gowrappan (pictured above), formerly an executive at China’s Alibaba Group, took over the reins as Oath CEO effective Oct. 1, reporting to Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, who stepped into the job in August. In the SEC filing, Verizon said the new leadership team — including Gowrappan and Vestberg — completed a five-year strategic planning review of Oath’s business prospects, which resulted in the downward revision for Oath’s financial projections.

Oath has been losing share in the digital-ad space since 2017, as other players including Amazon have made gains. Last year, Oath represented 4.1% of U.S. digital ad revenue (around $3.6 billion); its market share is projected to decline to 3.3% in 2018 (roughly $3.7 billion), according to research firm eMarketer.

Also in Tuesday’s filing, Verizon said it will take a charge of $1.8 billion-$2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 for severance costs, after around 10,400 employees accepted the company’s voluntary buyout offer initiated in September. Nearly half of those employees will exit in December, with rest to leave by June 2019.

In addition, Verizon disclosed that it expects to complete a reorganization of “legal entities associated with its wireless business” in December 2018. That will result in a one-time deferred tax benefit of around $2.1 billion in Q4 of 2018, the telco said.

Following the biggest fourth-quarter worldwide subscriber gain ever and some controversy around increased prices in the U.S., Netflix looks to keep its momentum going into 2019. From Jan. 18 through March, the streaming site will release 10 original films, including action-packed thrillers, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi, quirky comedies, inspirational dramas, an artistic horror movie and a viral [...]

Netflix’s binge-spending on content isn’t expected to slow down. The streamer spent a whopping $12.04 billion in cash on content last year, up 35% from $8.9 billion in 2017, according to its fourth-quarter 2018 earnings report. For the year ahead, Wall Street analysts see that climbing 25% — to around $15 billion on a gross [...]

Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries has set a first-look pact with Apple to develop non-fiction features and series. The deal comes as Imagine is investing heavily in the premium non-fiction arena. The company in June recruited RadicalMedia veteran Justin Wilkes to head Imagine Documentaries as president. The deal suggests that Apple sees docu [...]

Disney has rejiggered its business segments for earnings reporting to make room for the new unit housing its global streaming operations. Disney on Friday released restated earnings for fiscal 2018, 2017 and 2016 to give investors and financial analysts better visibility into its spending on the launch of the Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and other [...]

Documents related to a 2012 lawsuit against Facebook in which children, sometimes unwittingly, spent their parents’ money on games via the social site will be unsealed, according to a Monday ruling from the United States District Court. The court gave Facebook ten days to file unredacted documents in accordance with the ruling. The 2012 lawsuit [...]

Facebook has restructured its augmented and virtual reality research division and set up a new group tasked with building augmented reality (AR) glasses, according to a new Business Insider report. Facebook acknowledged the move in a statement given to the publication, saying that the move affected “a few hundred people.” The group has already built [...]